Top 5 WooCommerce extensions

Here at Foundation we love WordPress, that’s how we build all of our websites. When it comes to an e-commerce solution, we love WooCommerce. It’s an incredibly powerful yet simple to use platform from which to sell products on your WordPress website.

As good as WooCommerce is though, it still has its limitations out of the box. That’s where extensions come in. We’ve put together a handy list of our Top 5 WooCommerce Extensions that all websites can benefit from using.

wooCommerce product custom options lite.

It’s great being able to sell items online and without worry. But what if your product isn’t as straight forward as simply clicking ‘add to cart’? What if you offer bespoke t-shirts or mugs which your customers can add their own text to? Well fear not because WooCommerce Product Custom Options Lite is here to help.

This extensions allows you to add any number of text fields to your product, allowing your customers to create a product as unique as they are. There are options to limit the amount of characters per text field if space is at a premium, and you can also set it so that additional text may increase the cost of the product.

Having used this plugin multiple times it’s something I know works well, and to top it off, even though this is a free plugin, the support is fantastic.

stripe payment gateway.

A bog standard install of WooCommerce will let you do a lot of things. One thing it won’t do though is take credit card payments, you have to leave and visit PayPal for that to happen. Fortunately there is a Stripe Payment Gateway making it’s way into our top 5 WooCommerce extensions list.

I’m a big fan of Stripe as a payment gateway, from both a shop owner and customer point of view. As a customer it’s a logo and payment gateway that I’m familiar with, and that fills me with confidence. It also WILL NOT work without a valid SSL certificate on the domain, which again is great for the whole trust thing.

As a shop owner, it’s incredibly easy to work with in their back end, and their commission rates are extremely competitive. I have no trouble recommending them as a payment gateway, and that’s why I have no issue putting Stripe Payment Gateway into this list.

wooCommerce products filter.

Assuming you have an online shop that sells a vast amount of products within the same category then this could be the extension for you. WooCommerce Products Filter allows your customers to easily filter the products displayed in front of them.

There are a number of filter options available including: categories, attributes, product tags, custom taxanomies and, of course, price. Giving your customers the ability to easily sift through your products to find exactly what they want quickly and efficiently will undoubtedly result in them more likely buying from you.

On top of this these great features for your customers, and a good reason as to why this extension makes our list of top 5 WooCommerce Extensions is how simple it is to use. The extension comes with a fantastic widget you can drop into your shop sidebar and you’re away! What more could you ask for?

wooCommerce PDF invoices.

As great as WooCommerce is at automating your life, one thing it cannot do is generate PDF invoices to send to you customers. Fortunately, WooCommerce PDF Invoices does exactly that!

The extension comes with multiple invoice templates which you can customise and attache directly to the automated emails sent from WooCommerce. It also uses sequential numbering of the invoices generate ensuring everything is kept tidy and in order when it comes to doing the accounts.

A final great feature that your customers will love is that they can download all of the invoices from their previous orders in their ‘My Account’ page. This is fantastic for those customers who may not be quite as organised with their inboxes as they perhaps should be.

wooCommerce shortcodes.

Finally on our list of Top 5 WooCommerce Extensions is WooCommerce Shortcodes. Unlike the rest of the extensions on this list that have great benefits for your customers, WooCommerce Shortcodes is definitely for the website owner.

Creating the perfect layout for your online shop is a goal any website owner has. However, it can be quite a tedious task when you have to constantly refer back to a list of shortcodes within the WooCommerce documentation to know how to add what where.

Thankfully this tedious task is made a lot simpler with the final addition to our list of Top 5 WooCommerce Extensions. Simply activate this extension and enjoy the wealth of WooCommerce shortcodes within the TinyMCE editor of WordPress, all nicely contained within a nice little drop down menu. A great way to speed up building your online shop that’s for sure!

will these extensions help with your online shop?

Hopefully this list has given you something to think about when it comes to your next web design project. If you’re still a little bit lost as to where to start with setting up your own e-commerce solution then why not drop us a message and see how we can help you get going.

Mark is a logo design and brand identity specialist, and founder of Foundation Design Agency. He has worked for many years as a freelance logo designer operating www.thelogomark.co.uk. He has a passion for all aspects of brand identity design as well as being a keen NFL fan and occasional songwriter.